Skip over navigation
Banner
Directory
Directory Search
Jobs
Job Search Post a Job
Patient
Patient Resources Drug Development
History
Genealogy
Toons & Teasers
Industry
 Directory
 Toons & Teasers
Quick Links
 Directory
 Job Search
 Toons & Teasers
 Advertising
 
Advertising
 

EquipNet Auction: Sell Your Surplus Equipment on Our Global Marketplace Now!

Our Newest Cartoon Illustrates: "Milestones in CRISPR"

North American Biotech Roadshow Featuring Grad Students, Post-Docs & Start-Up “Do’s & Don’ts”


Massachusetts Life Science History

The following includes select facts from life science history, both global and Massachusetts state specific, that help explain the origins of the state's life science industry. Please note that these facts are part of a much larger state-specific history database that will be launched in the near future. In the meantime, we encourage you to learn about the scientists behind the discoveries, the entrepreneurs, philanthropists, political leaders, and significant events, institutions and companies that are the foundation of the life science industry in the state of Massachusetts.

If you are aware of a notable event, person, organization/company or accomplishment that we should include, please e-mail us at: Suggestions@InfoResource.org


1636 -- Harvard University was founded.

In 1636, Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the U.S., was founded and named for the college's first benefactor, John Harvard a minister from Charlestown. Upon his death in 1638, Harvard left half his estate to the institution established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seven U.S. presidents – John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and George W. Bush – graduated from Harvard.

In 1782, The Harvard Medical School was founded. Today, the Harvard Medical School is one of the leading medical research intitutions in the U.S. and more than a dozen current and former faculty have received Nobel Prizes in Medicine.


1848 -- American Association for the Advancement of Science was founded.

American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science founded in 1848 marked the emergence of a national scientific community in the United States, and was the first organization established to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of all its disciplines.

Today, the AAAS serves nearly 300 affiliated societies and academies of science and publishes the peer-reviewed general science journal Science. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives that include science policy, international programs, science education, and public understanding of science.


1859 -- Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species."

Charles Darwin, 1855 In 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" in which he postulated his theory of evolution that explained how the diverse of species on Earth evolved from a simple, singled-celled ancestor.

Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection holds that variation within species occurs randomly and that the survival or extinction of each organism is determined by that organism's ability to adapt to its environment. Darwin's theory of evolution remains the foundation of modern biology.



1861 -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Founded.

In 1861, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was founded through the efforts of William Barton Rogers formerly chair of natural philosophy at the University of Virginia. Rogers served as president of MIT from 1862-1870, and a second term from 1879-1881.

MIT has a long tradition of working on practical problems affecting the society and the economy, and in recent years has become a leader in developing collaborative partnerships with industry, including significant biotechnology research collaborations with Amgen (1994), DuPont (1997) and Merk (1997). Today, MIT is one of the leading research intitutions in the U.S., and sixty-one current or former members of the MIT community have won the Nobel Prize, including twelve in chemistry and eight in medicine/physiology.


1865 -- Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, presented his laws of heredity.

Gregor Mendel Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian considered the father of modern genetics, conducted crossbreeding experiments with pea plants between 1856 and 1863. Through this work, he established many of the rules of heredity.

"In 1859 I obtained a very fertile descendant with large, tasty seeds from a first generation hybrid. Since in the following year, its progeny retained the desirable characteristics and were uniform, the variety was cultivated in our vegetable garden, and many plants were raised every year up to 1865. (Gregor Mendel to Carl Nägeli, April 1867).



1887 -- Marine Hospital Service Hygienic Laboratory (National Institutes of Health) was founded.

Joseph Kinyoun The National Institutes of Health (NIH) traces its roots to 1887, when a one-room laboratory was created within the Marine Hospital Service (MHS), predecessor agency to the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The MHS was established in 1798 to provide for the medical care of merchant seamen -- charged by Congress with examining passengers on arriving ships for clinical signs of infectious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever, to prevent epidemics.

During the 1870s and 1880s, scientists in Europe presented compelling evidence that microscopic organisms were the causes of several infectious diseases, and MHS officials closely followed these developments. In 1887, Joseph Kinyoun, a MHS physician trained in the new bacteriological methods, set up a one-room laboratory in the Marine Hospital at Stapleton, Staten Island, New York. Kinyoun called this facility a "laboratory of hygiene" in imitation of German facilities, and within a few months, he identified the cholera bacillus and used his Zeiss microscope to demonstrate it to his colleagues as confirmation of their clinical diagnoses (Photo: courtesy of the NIH Almanac).


1896 -- Deaconess Hospital was founded.

In 1896 as part of their missionary charter, Methodist deaconesses founded Deaconess Hospital to care for the city's residents, and in 1916, Beth Israel Hospital was established by the Boston Jewish community to meet the needs of the growing immigrant population. In 1996, the Beth Israel Hospital merged with the New England Deaconess Hospital to form the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

Today, BIDMC is one of the three major teaching hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and is renowned for excellence in surgery, and treatment of cardiac conditions, cancer, and pulmonary and thoracic disorders; and expertise in neurosciences, gastroenterology and liver disease, obstetrics and women's health, podiatry, and emergency and trauma medicine. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox.

Among independent teaching hospitals, BIDMC is the fourth-largest recipient of biomedical research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Research funding totals nearly $150 million annually. BIDMC researchers run more than 1,000 active sponsored projects and 200 clinical trials. BIDMC also shares important clinical and research programs with institutions such as the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, the Joslin Diabetes Center and Children's Hospital.


1902 -- The Biologics Control Act was established.

Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, NIH The Biologics Control Act, established in 1902, had major consequences for the Hygienic Laboratory. It charged the laboratory with regulating the production of vaccines and antitoxins, making it a regulatory agency four years before passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The danger posed by biological products that had emerged from bacteriologic discoveries resulted from their production in animals and their administration by injection. In 1901, thirteen children in St. Louis died after receiving diphtheria antitoxin contaminated with tetanus spores. This tragedy spurred Congress to pass the Biologics Control Act, and between 1903-1907 standards were established and licenses issued to pharmaceutical firms for making smallpox and rabies vaccines, diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins, and various other antibacterial antisera. (In 1972, responsibility for regulation of biologics was transferred to the Food and Drug Administration).

Marine Hospital Service seal The Marine Hospital Service (MHS), established in 1798, was reorganized in 1912 and renamed the Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS was authorized to conduct research into noncontagious diseases and into the pollution of streams and lakes in the U.S. During World War I, the PHS attended primarily to sanitation of areas around military bases in the U.S., and when the 1918 influenza pandemic struck Washington, physicians from the laboratory were pressed into service treating patients in the District of Columbia because so many local doctors had fallen ill.


1918 -- Spanish Influenza Pandemic.

Spanish Flu, 1918 It is estimated that between 25 and 40 million people died from the the influenza outbreak that began in 1918, swept across America in a week and around the world in three months. In all, between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans --civilians and soldiers-- died from the influenza, more than were lost in World War I, II, and the Korean and Viet Nam wars combined.

Influenza had broken out at the Receiving Ship on August 28, and within a week there were over two-dozen cases among sailors stationed there. Soon, the disease spread to other nearby naval installations and shipyards, and by mid-September it had infected nearly two thousand of the 21,000 sailors stationed in the Boston area. Cases among Boston’s civilian population soon appeared. Initial civilian cases were reported on or about September 11. By September 16, there were hundreds of influenza cases in the city. By mid-October, over 3,500 Bostonians had died from influenza or pneumonia since the start of the epidemic.

In the end, Boston lost 4,794 of its residents to epidemic influenza and pneumonia in the fall of 1918 alone. Combined with the winter 1919 epidemic wave, Boston experienced an excess death rate of 710 per 100,000 residents, making it one of the worst hit cities in the United States. Only Pittsburgh and Philadelphia fared worse.

Additional information about the Spanish influenza pandemic, including audio interviews, photographs, teacher guides and more can be found through the The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919: A Digital Encyclopedia, PBS's The American Experience, and Centers for Disease Control, National Vaccine Program Office.


1930 -- The name of the Hygienic Laboratory was changed to the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Joseph J. Kinyoun, NIH In 1930, the Ransdell Act changed the name of the Hygienic Laboratory to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and authorized the establishment of fellowships for research into basic biological and medical problems. The roots of this act extended to 1918, when chemists who had worked with the Chemical Warfare Service in World War I sought to establish an institute in the private sector to apply fundamental knowledge in chemistry to problems of medicine.


1933 -- Thomas Hunt Morgan was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his chromosome theory of heredity.

Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan pioneered the new science of genetics through experimental research with the fruit fly (Drosophila), laying the foundations for the future of biology. On the basis of fly-breeding experiments he demonstrated that genes are linked in a series on chromosomes and that they determine indentifiable, hereditary traits.

In 1928, Thomas Hunt Morgan transferred to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to organize work in biology, and five years later he was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his chromosome theory of heredity. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)



1934 -- George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

George R. Minot William P. Murphy George R. Minot, a native of Boston, MA and a graduate and faculty member of Harvard University (A.B. 1908, M.D. 1912), and William P. Murphy, also a graduate and faculty member of Harvard University (M.D. 1922), were awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with George Hoyt Whipple for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anaemia. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)




1937 -- The National Cancer Institute was created.

National 
    Cancer Institue

In 1937, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was created with sponsorship from every Senator in Congress, and was authorized to award grants to nonfederal scientists for research on cancer and to fund fellowships at NCI for young researchers.

Today, the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training.


1944 -- Public Health Service Act was established.

Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center The 1944 Public Health Service Act defined the shape of medical research in the post-war world. The entire NIH budget expanded from $8 million in 1947 to more than $1 billion in 1966, now fondly remembered as "the golden years" of NIH expansion. The 1944 PHS Act authorized NIH to conduct clinical research, and after the war Congress provided funding to build a research hospital, now called the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The Center which opened in 1953 with 540 beds was designed to bring research laboratories into close proximity with hospital wards in order to promote productive collaboration between laboratory scientists and clinicians.

The NIH today, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research and is composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, providing leadership and financial support to researchers in every state and throughout the world.


1947 -- Transistor was invented at AT&T's Bell Laboratories.

John Bardeen William Shockley Walter Brattain The transistor, the invention that marked the dawn of the information age, was invented by John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. Bardeen, Shockley and Brattain were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the transistor effect.

Transistors have become an invisible technology that is part of almost every electronic device. Every major information age innovation was made possible by the transistor and its application can be found all around us.

Brattain received his B.S. degree from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA and a M.A. degree from the University of Oregon. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)


1947 -- Children's Cancer Research Foundation (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) was founded.

In 1947, the late Sidney Farber, MD, founded a Children's Cancer Research Foundation dedicated to providing children with cancer with compassionate, state-of-the-art treatment and simultaneously developing the cancer preventatives, treatments, and cures of the future. The Institute officially expanded its programs to include patients of all ages in 1969, and in 1974 became known as the Sidney Farber Cancer Center in honor of its founder. Charles A. Dana Sr. was an attorney, legislator, industrialist, and philanthropist. As founder of the Charles A. Dana Foundation, he directed funding to advance programs in healthcare and higher education. The Institute acknowledged its generous, long-term support from the Dana Foundation by incorporating the Dana name into its official title in 1983.

Beginning in the early 1950s, and continuing until his death in 1973, Farber became a star presenter at Congressional hearings on appropriations for cancer research. Animated, with a flair for the dramatic anecdote and poignant case history, Farber made a compelling speaker. With Mary Woodard Lasker, a longtime advocate of biomedical research, famed surgeon Michael DeBakey, Senator Lester Hill of Louisiana and Congressman John Fogarty of Rhode Island, Farber led a massive expansion in federal spending for cancer research. Between 1957 and 1967, the annual budget of the National Cancer Institute, the government's primary funding arm for cancer study, jumped from $48 million to $176 million.

Today, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute employs about 3,000 people supporting more than 150,000 patient visits a year, is involved in some 200 clinical trials, and is internationally renowned for its blending of research and clinical excellence.


1952 -- Joslin Clinic was founded.

In 1898, Elliott P. Joslin, M.D., opened a private practice on Beacon Street in Boston that in 1952 became formally known as Joslin Clinic. Dr. Joslin's associates included Howard Root, M.D., Alexander Marble, M.D., and Robert Bradley, M.D. (all three became Joslin Presidents), his son Allen P. Joslin, M.D., Leo Krall, M.D. (who held the position of President of the International Diabetes Federation) and Priscilla White, M.D., known for her pioneering work with children and pregnant women.

In 1958, the Joslin Clinic moved to its current location adjacent to New England Deaconess Hospital (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), and in 1968 the Joslin Clinic merged with The Diabetes Foundation, and was renamed Joslin Diabetes Foundation. Renamed Joslin Diabetes Center in 1981, the institution now combines patient care, research and education into one single organization. Joslin Diabetes Center is an institution on the front lines of the world epidemic of diabetes, leading the battle to conquer diabetes in all of its forms through cutting-edge research and innovative approaches to clinical care and education.


1953 -- Double helix structure of DNA was revealed.

James D. Watson Francis Crick Maurice Wilkins The double helix structure of DNA, the hereditary molecule is revealed by two scientists, James D. Watson and Francis Crick. This is one of the key discoveries of the century. Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nuclear acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.

Rosalind Franklin, whose work contributed to the discovery, died before this date and the rules do not allow a Nobel Prize to be awarded posthumously. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation)


1953 -- Fritz Albert Lipmann awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Fritz Lipmann Fritz Lipmann of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)





1954 -- John Enders, Thomas Weller, and Federick Robbins awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

John F. Enders Thomas H. Weller Frederick C. Robbins John F. Enders and Thomas H. Weller of Harvard University and Frederick C. Robbins were awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue, based on work done at the Research Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Medical Center in Boston, a laboratory established by John Enders in 1946. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)



1958 -- Integrated circuit was invented.

Photo of Jack Kilby, inventor of the integrated circuit. Jack Kilby, an engineer at Texas Instruments shows only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium. This invention (7/16-by-1/16-inches in size), called an integrated circuit, revolutionized the electronics industry. Kilby was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the integrated circuit. (Photo: Jack Kilby courtesy of Texas Instruments)

Jack Kilby went on to pioneer military, industrial, and commercial applications of microchip technology. He headed teams that built both the first military system and the first computer incorporating integrated circuits. He later co-invented both the hand-held calculator and the thermal printer that was used in portable data terminals. Mr. Kilby officially retired from TI in 1983, but he maintained a significant involvement with the company throughout his life.


1961 -- President John F. Kennedy expanded the U.S. Space Program

President John F. Kennedy expands U.S. Space Program Listen to President John F. Kennedy's speech in his historic message to a joint session of the Congress, on May 25, 1961 declared, "...I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." This goal was achieved when astronaut Neil A. Armstrong became the first human to set foot upon the Moon at 10:56 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969. Shown in the background are, (left) Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and (right) Speaker of the House Sam T. Rayburn. The expansion of the U.S. Space Program resulted in the development of a wide range of technology with enormous benefit to human and animal kind. (Photo: courtesy National Aeronautics & Space Administration)


1967 -- George Wald was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

George Wald George Wald of Harvard University was awarded the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffer Hartline for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)


1969 -- Man walked on the moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon. In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, American astronauts, made history by becoming the first men to walk on the moon. Listen to Neil Armstrong's first words as he steps onto the lunar surface (66 kb .wav file). Photo: Courtesy of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration)

An important benefit of the Apollo Lunar Program and other NASA programs is the ever-growing pipeline of technology that improves human and veterinary healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics.


1969 -- Victor McKusick published "Mendelian Inheritance in Man".

Victor McKusick Victor McKusick, widely acknowledged as the father of medical genetics, spent his career studying the genetic basis of diseases and disorders with the belief that such an understanding could lead to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. He studied, identified, and mapped genes responsible for inherited conditions such as Marfan syndrome and dwarfism (specifically in Amish communities). In 1969, he proposed the idea of mapping the human genome, over 30 years before the Human Genome Project was established.

McKusick, a graduate of Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1946), spent his entire career there and founded the Division of Medical Genetics in 1957, the first research center and clinic of its kind. In 1969 he published the 1st edition of his book "Mendelian Inheritance of Man", one of the most comprehensive collections of inherited disease genes. In 2002, McKusick received the highest scientific honor in the U.S., the National Medal of Science.


1971 -- NASDAQ Stock Market was founded.

NASDAQ Stock Market was founded as the world's first electronic stock market by the National Association of Securities Dealers. The NASDAQ system, created by the Bunker Ramos Corp. allowed the financial community, for the first time, to determine which market offered the best price on a given security.


1971 -- President Nixon declared war on cancer creating the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute.

On Dec. 23, 1971, the National Cancer Act of 1971, enacted by President Richard Nixon as part of the nation’s war on cancer, established the Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute. The National Cancer Act, "The War on Cancer," gave the NCI unique autonomy at NIH with special budgetary authority. The annual budget of NCI, called the bypass budget, be submitted directly to the president, bypassing traditional approval by the NIH or the Department of HHS required of other NIH institutes.


1973 -- Recombinant DNA was perfected.

Stanley Cohen The modern era of biotechnology begins when Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of the University of California at San Francisco successfully recombined ends of bacterial DNA after splicing a toad gene in between. They called their accomplishment recombinant DNA, but the media preferred the term genetic engineering. (Photo: Courtesy Stanley Cohen)

Boyer and Cohen's achievement was an advancement upon the techniques developed by Paul Berg, in 1972, for inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA. Cohen's research at Stanford was with plasmids—the nonchromosomal, circular units of DNA found in, and exchanged by, bacteria, while Boyer's was restriction enzymes produced by bacteria to counter invasion by bacteriophages.


1974 -- Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was enacted.

Jacob Javits Pete Williams John N. Erlenborn, the ranking Republican on the House Committee, was responsible for bringing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to a floor vote, and is one of the ERISA’s "Founding Fathers." Together with Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), Senator Pete Williams (D-NJ) and Congressman John Dent (D-PA), Erlenborn crafted provisions and participated in negotiations that were instrumental to the enactment of ERISA which was - and remains - the single most important legislation governing employee benefit plans in the United States creating a growing source of new capital. (Photos: Jacob Javits and Pete Williams courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office).


1975 -- Monoclonal antibodies were produced.

Niels Jerne Georges Köhler César Milstein In 1975, Georges Köhler and César Milstein, showed how monoclonal antibodies can be generated by isolating individual fused myeloma cells.

The 1984 Nobel Laureate in Medicine was awarded jointly to: Niels Jerne, Georges Köhler and César Milstein for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies. (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation).


1975 -- David Baltimore was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

David Baltimore David Baltimore of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Renato Dulbecco and Howard Martin Temin for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)


1976 -- Genentech was founded.

Genentech Genentech was founded by venture capitalist Robert Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. In the early 1970s, Boyer and geneticist Stanley Cohen at Stanford University pioneered recombinant DNA technology.

Within a few short years Swanson and Boyer invented a new industry - biotechnology. In 1980, Genentech issued its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and raised $35 million with an offering that jumped from $35 a share to a high of $88 after less than an hour on the market. This event was one of the largest stock run-ups ever, and that event set the stage for future biotechnolgy industry offerings.


1977 -- First human gene was cloned.

Walter Gilbert Frederick Sanger Walter Gilbert induced bacteria to synthesize insulin and interferon, and Frederick Sanger published the complete sequence of phage FX174. The 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Frederick Sanger and Walter Gilbert for "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids, and to Paul Berg for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA.

Gilbert and Sanger independently developed different methods to determine the exact sequence of the nucleotide building blocks in DNA. The investigations of Berg, Gilbert and Sanger have given us a detailed insight into the chemical basis of the genetic machinery in living organisms (Photos: © The Nobel Foundation).


1980 -- U.S. Supreme Court ruled man-made organism patentable.

Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty. Diamond v. Chakrabarty, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds five-to-four the patentability of genetically altered organisms, opening the door to greater patent protection for any modified life forms.

In 1972, Mohan Chakrabarty, a microbiologist, filed a patent application, assigned to the General Electric Co. for a human-made genetically engineered bacterium capable of breaking down multiple components of crude oil. Because of this property, which is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria, Chakrabarty's invention was believed to have significant value for the treatment of oil spills. The application asserted 36 claims related to Chakrabarty's invention of "a bacterium from the genus Pseudomonas containing therein at least two stable energy-generating plasmids, each of said plasmids providing a separate hydrocarbon degradative pathway.

Opinions: Chief Justice Warren Burger delivered the opinion of the Court, in which justices Potter Stewart, Harry Blackmun, William Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens joined. William Brennan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, and Lewis Powell joined.


1980 -- Bayh-Dole Act provided for university technology transfer.

Birch Bayh, Senator, Indiana Robert Dole, Senator, Kansas H.R.6933, Public Law: 96-517, December 12, 1980. A bill to amend title 35 of the United States Code. This Act known as the Bayh-Dole Act provided for the legal transfer of research and technology originating from U.S. universities and federal laboratories to private companies for commercialization. Technology transfer offices are now common in universities and federal laboratories and are the technology foundation for numerous biotechnology and medical device companies. (Photos: Birch Bayh and Robert Dole courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office)


1980 -- Baruj Benacerraf and George D. Snell were awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Baruj Benacerraf George D. Snell Baruj Benacerraf of the Harvard Medical School and George Snell, a native of Bradford, Massachusetts, were awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Jean Dausset of France for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)





1981 -- David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel were awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

David H. Hubel Torsten N. Wiesel David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel of the Harvard Medical School were awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)






1981 -- Genzyme Corporation Founded.

On June 8, 1981, Genzyme Corporation, was founded in Boston by venture capitialist Sheridan Snyder and professor Henry Blair from Tufts University. The company initially focused on the research and development of therapeutics for enzyme deficiency conditions that were required for one’s survival but afflict a very small percentage of the world’s population (designated as "orphan drugs" in 1983).

In 1982, Genzyme in collaboration with the University of Iowa, successfully experimented with human genes in an effort to develop treatments for cystic fibrosis. In 1986, the company completed it's Initial Public Offering that set the stage for future expansion. In 1993, the company spun off Genzyme Transgenics, and in 1994 acquired Biosurface Technology that was integrated into the corporation as Genzyme Tissue Repair. In 1997, Genzyme acquired PharmaGenics to create Genzyme Molecular Oncology.

Today, Genzyme is a diversified enterprise with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion and 10,000 employees in locations spanning the globe. The company’s products and services are focused on rare inherited disorders, kidney disease, orthopaedics, transplant, cancer, and diagnostic testing. Genzyme’s commitment to innovation continues today with a substantial research and development program focused on these fields, as well as immune disease, infectious disease, and other areas of unmet medical need.


1982 -- Whitehead Institute Founded.

In 1982, The Whitehead Institute, was founded as an independent research institution affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the efforts of Edwin C. "Jack" Whitehead pioneer of the modern clinical diagnostics industry. Through its teaching activities the Whitehead accepts MIT graduate students for research and training in its laboratories and MIT, considers all Whitehead faculty for appointment to faculty level positions at MIT.

From 1982-84, Jack Whitehead provided $35 million to build and equip the new Whitehead building, as well as $5 million per year in guaranteed income and a substantial endowment in his will. At the time, the total gift of $135 million was the second largest gift made by a living person in the history of the United States.

Today, the Whitehead Institute is a thriving center for scientific advancement with more than 200 students, postdoctoral fellows, physicians, and visiting scientists from around the world, and pioneering programs in cancer research, developmental biology, genetics, infectious disease research and transgenic science.


1983 -- Orphan Drug Act was created.

U.S. FDA The Orphan Drug Act encouraged the research and development of drugs for rare or "orphan" diseases defined as a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 Americans.

The Orphan Drug Act provided for financial incentives to help companies recover the cost of developing much needed therapies for small patient populations. The FDA estimates that more than 11 million patients in the U.S. and millions more around the world, have benefited from this legislation.


1984 -- Alec Jeffreys and technician Vicky Wilson discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting.

Sir Alec Jeffreys In 1984, geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys, and technician Vicky Wilson at the University of Leicester in England discovered minisatellites leading to the development of genetic fingerprinting. The new technology was first used in 1985 to resolve a disputed immigration case that confirmed the identity of a British boy whose family was from Ghana.

In 1988, Colin Pitchfork was convicted of murdering two girls in 1983 and 1986 in Narborough, Leicestershire, England after his DNA samples matched semen samples taken from the two dead girls. Jeffreys' work in this case convicted the killer, but also exonerated Richard Buckland, a suspect who otherwise might have spent his life in prison. In 1994, Jeffreys' was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to genetics.


1990 -- Human Genome Project was established.

Human Genome Project Logo The U.S. Human Genome Project was established -- a 13-year effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. The main goals of the Human Genome Project were to provide a complete and accurate sequence of the 3 billion DNA base pairs that make up the human genome and to find all of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 human genes. The project, originally planned to last 15 years, was expected to be completed by 2003 due to rapid technological advances.


1990 -- Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas were awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Joseph Murray, a native of Milford, Massachusetts and graduate of Harvard Medical School, and E. Donnall Thomas, a graduate of Harvard Medical School (M.D. 1946), were awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

Joseph E. Murray E. Donnall Thomas


1993 -- Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) was founded.

Biotechnology Industry Organization Biotechnology Industry Organization is the world's largest organization to serve and represent the biotechnology industry. BIO's leadership and service-oriented guidance have helped advance the industry and bring the benefits of biotechnology to people everywhere.


1993 -- Kary B. Mullis was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Kary B. Mullis Kary B. Mullis of La Jolla, CA and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.) was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry, specifically for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

PCR allows scientists to quickly replicate small strands of DNA, greatly simplifying the sequencing and cloning of genes. First presented in 1985, PCR has become one of the most widespread methods of analyzing DNA. Notably, PCR requires the heat-stable enzyme Taq (Thermus Aquaticus) which originated from hot springs located in Yellowstone National Park.


2001 -- Human Genome Project draft sequence was published.

Human Genome Project Logo The February 16 issue of Science and February 15 issue of Nature contained the working draft of the human genome sequence (U.S. Human Genome Project). Nature papers included initial analysis of the descriptions of the sequence generated by the publicly sponsored Human Genome Project, while Science publications focused on the draft sequence reported by the private company, Celera Genomics.


2003 -- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was founded.

Broad Institute The Broad Intitute was founded in 2003 and launched in 2004 through the generosity and vision of Los Angeles-based philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad. The Institute was founded through donations of $100 million in 2003, and another $100 million in 2005 by the Broad family. The Institute evolved from a decade of successful research collaborations among scientists in the Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) communities, and was created to facilitate collaboration and organization of cross-discipinary projects at any scale. The Institute's main mission is to translate knowledge of the human genome into new forms of medicines.

In September 2008, the Broads donated another $400 million for genetic research at the Broad Institute, just three years after the couple gave $200 million to establish the foundation. The endowment will fund genetic research through 2014 and allow the Institute to become a permanent, non-profit organization. The Institute, which employs more than 1,200 researchers, is overseen by Harvard University and MIT.

Strong believers in higher education, the Broad Foundations have made a major contribution to the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA toward the construction of The Edythe L. and Eli Broad Art Center. Mr. Broad is a member of the board of trustees of CalTech, where the Broads gave the cornerstone gift to create the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. Mr. Broad also served as chairman of the board of trustees of Pitzer College, and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the California State University system. In 1991, the Broads endowed The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University where Mr. Broad graduated cum laude in 1954.

Eli Broad built two Fortune 500 companies from the ground up over a five-decade career in business. He is chairman of AIG Retirement Services Inc. (formerly SunAmerica Inc.) and founder-chairman of KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation). Today, the Broad family’s commitment to philanthropy and community is both deep and wide-ranging. It includes ongoing leadership roles in art, education, science and civic development.


2003 -- Roderick MacKinnon was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Roderick MacKinnon Roderick MacKinnon, a native of Melrose, Massachusetts and a graduate of Brandeis University (B.Sc. 1978) and Tufts University (M.D. 1982), was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes, specifically for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)


2004 -- Linda Buck was awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Linda Buck was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Richard Axel for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system, work done while Linda Buck was a member of the Harvard University faculty. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

Linda Buck


2005 -- Richard R. Schrock was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Richard Schrock Richard Schrock of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)


2006 -- Craig Mello was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Fire for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. (Photo: © The Nobel Foundation)

Craig Mello


2007 -- The National Institutes of Health established the Human Microbiome Project.

Human Microbiome Project On Dec. 19, 2007, the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), a $150 million initiative, was established by the National Institutes of Health with the mission of generating resources that would enable the comprehensive characterization of the human microbiome and analysis of its role in human health and disease.

The HMP is the collection of all the microorganisms living in association with the human body, including eukaryotes, archaea, bacteria and viruses. Bacteria in an average human body number ten times more than human cells, for a total of about 1000 more genes than are present in the human genome.



Learn about the history of the life science industry in other states:

Plus the provinces of:

  • Alberta
  • British Columbia


Other Life Science History Resources

  • Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Chemical Heritage Foundation
  • Food & Drug Administration
  • Gotham Prize for Cancer Research
  • International Balzan Foundation
  • International Museum of Surgical Science
  • Lasker Foundation
  • National Academy of Sciences
  • National Health Museum
  • National Institutes of Health History, Office of
  • National Medal of Science
  • Prix Galien USA
  • The Nobel Foundation
  • The World Food Prize


If you are aware of a notable event or person at your company or organization that should be included in Massachusetts Life Science History, please e-mail us at: suggestions@inforesource.org.


Massachusetts Life Science History(TM) and Massachusetts Life Science Evolution(TM) © Info.Resource, Inc.

 
Email thie page to a friend. Email This Page
to a Friend
Print this page. Print This
Page
© 1997 - 2023 Info.Resource, Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy . Cookie Policy . Terms of Use . About . Advertising

MassachusettsLifeScience.com, owned and published by Info.Resource, Inc., is a resource
for the life science industry in the state of Massachusetts.